In an effort to diversify the economy of the country, First Bank of Nigeria has renewed its support for the expansion and development of the mining sector.
Temitayo Osundosumu, Group Head, Corporate Banking, Energy (Upstream and midstream), revealed this on a panel at the Nigeria Mining Week in Abuja.
According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), the 2022 Mining Week, which took place from November 1 to 3, with the topic "Profiling Nigeria's Strengths: Achievements And Focus Areas."
Osundosumu claims that the mining sector is expanding and that First Bank will always support it.
“First Bank is open for business and will always support the mining sector, and we have the expertise.
“We want the miners to speak with us. Most of the time it is not always loans they need, it could be banking solutions or discussing with other partners new finances.
“We have done this across our footprints in Africa and we are keen on doing it in Nigeria,” he said.
Osundosumu said the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development had been taking a lot of steps to structure the mining industry.
According to him, artisans and small-scale miners are being put together in a well-organised manner.
“A good one is the Solid Minerals Development Fund.
“It is a way to de-risk all the issues in the mining industry so that banks’ funding will be applicable to it and can take the industry forward,” he said.
Also, the Executive Secretary/Chief Executive Officer of the Solid Mineral Development Fund, Mrs Fatima Shinkafi, said the mining industry in Nigeria was 70 per cent artisanal.
Shinkafi, however, said the miners could be more productive if they were well structured.
She advised miners looking for funding from banks to ensure that their firms had good corporate governance structure, as well as viable products.
“Banks will only give you funding based on your cash flow. You need to have a product that is viable and your firm must have a good corporate governance structure.
“Mining is a science. You must develop data for future funding,” she said.
The Nigeria Mining Week is the sixth in the series.
It was organised as an in-person event for the first time since 2020, following the outbreak COVID-19 pandemic.
The organisers said the conference allowed the entire mining value chain to reconnect face-to-face and explore the many exciting opportunities that the mining sector offered.
NAN